New rules to end ordeal of 'plane prisoners'

Blocked toilets, crying babies and airless cabins make air travellers furious – and the US government says they don’t have to take it any more.

New rules which go into effect in 120 days mean airlines must let people get off planes delayed on the ground for more than three hours.

Transportation secretary Ray LaHood said the three-hour limit and other new regulations were meant to send an unequivocal message to airlines not to hold passengers hostage on stuck planes.

Coming on the eve of the busy holiday travel season, the announcement was hailed by consumer advocates as “a Christmas miracle”.

The airline industry said it would obey the regulations, but argued the result would be more cancelled flights and more inconvenience for passengers.

“The requirement of having planes return to the gates within a three-hour window or face significant fines is inconsistent with our goal of completing as many flights as possible. Lengthy tarmac delays benefit no one,” said Air Transport Association president and chief executive James May.

But Mr LaHood said: “I don’t know what can be more disruptive to people than to be stuck sitting on a plane five, six, seven hours with no explanation.”

This year, up to October 31, there were 864 flights with taxi-out times or flight diversions of three hours or more, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Transportation chiefs, using 2007 and 2008 data, said there were an average of 1,500 domestic flights a year carrying about 114,000 passengers that were delayed more than three hours.

Last month, the department of transportation fined Continental Airlines, ExpressJet Airlines and Mesaba Airlines €123,000 for their roles in a nearly six-hour tarmac delay in Rochester, Minnesota.

In August, Continental Express Flight 2816 en route to Minneapolis was diverted to Rochester because of thunderstorms. Forty-seven passengers were kept overnight in a cramped plane because Mesaba employees refused to open a gate so that they could enter the closed airport terminal.

It was the first time the department had fined an airline for actions involving a ground delay and transportation officials made clear the case was a warning to the industry.

Under the new rules, the only exceptions to the requirement that planes must return to the gate after three hours are for safety or security or if air traffic control advises the pilot in command that returning to the terminal would disrupt airport operations.

Homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano said she thought the three-hour rule would not cause any problems for security. “I can’t imagine it would. I call it the rule of common sense,” she said.

Airlines could be fined more than €19,000 per passenger for each breach of the three-hour limit.

The regulations apply to domestic flights. US carriers operating international flights departing from or arriving in the US must specify in advance their own time limits for deplaning passengers.

Foreign carriers do not fly between two US cities and are not covered by the rules.

Tarmac strandings have mostly involved domestic flights, but the department is studying extending the three-hour limit to international flights, Mr LaHood said.

Airlines will be required to provide food and water for passengers within two hours of a plane being delayed on a tarmac, and to maintain operable lavatories. They must also provide passengers with medical attention when necessary.

“No more will they be able to strand passengers for over three hours in hot, sweaty, metal tubes,” said Kate Hanni, founder of Flyersrights.org.

Ms Hanni was stuck on an American Airlines jet in Austin, Texas, for over nine hours in December 2006 when storms forced the closure of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, stranding more than 100 planes.

Past efforts to address the problem have fizzled out in the face of industry opposition and promises to reform.